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Klaus Kirchmayr smiles somewhat agonizingly at the camera, obviously blinded by the late summer sun. The leader of the Green parliamentary group was able to register a great success last Wednesday: his company Urb-X, founded in April together with the president of the Green Party, Bálint Csontos, was authorized, together with the wood construction company of the former administrator of the district SVP Christoph Häring, for the canton of Baselland and the Federal Office for Strassen implements a feasibility study. The goal: a high-speed bike lift that will connect Pratteln with the Roman city of Augst in time for the Swiss Wrestling and Alpine Festival (Esaf) 2022 (this newspaper reported).
But since that presentation, a storm has been raging mainly on Kirchmayr, but also on Csontos and green building director Isaac Reber. For many in the political area of Basel, everything has a “green flavor”, as CVP district administrator Felix Keller puts it on Twitter. The president of the FDP, Saskia Schenker, declared in the same channel: “New type of seed financing in the Basel area: a study contract is awarded for 130,000 francs plus the pilot project and then has the patent for the implementation throughout Europe. . @grueneBL. “And” online reporting “journalist Peter Knechtli headlined:” The great Velobahn: Friend’s green business. “
Kirchmayr launched his own project with a raid?
Kirchmayr, 57, is especially the center of attention: “Klaus Kirchmayr did not miss an opportunity to comment negatively on the Basel Chamber of Commerce. And for the rest, he was always there to criticize possible clusters when awarding contracts. Now he is in this position himself and you can see it with an eagle’s eyes, ”says CVP district administrator Marc Scherrer of“ Switzerland at the weekend ”. And Schenker affirms: “The whole constellation is very ugly. It is not the first time that Klaus Kirchmayr has attracted negative attention. “He recalls that Kirchmayr only criticized Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank in the district manager after Beat Oberlin stepped down as CEO and Kirchmayr no longer had a consultant term. Oberlin is now chairman. of the board of directors of Urb-X AG.
Most critics don’t even rub against the 130,000 franc award of the feasibility study. As government adviser Reber repeatedly argued on Twitter, this contract did not go directly to Urb-X, but to Häring & Co AG and is also part of the government’s purview. The actual construction project must then be properly advertised. The root of the problem lies in the fact that Kirchmayr had submitted a motion in May 2019 asking for a Velo fast route network for the Basel area and that it was referred to the government as a nominee in September of the same year. “The fact that a district administrator is launching his own project, which he then has funded by the canton, caused astonishment not only in the FDP parliamentary group,” says Schenker. She also agreed at the time, but no one knew anything about the Kirchmayr project.
Faced with criticism from “Switzerland at the weekend”, Kirchmayr says: “If you know the moment, it becomes very clear.” When he introduced the Veloroute trailer in spring 2019, he hadn’t even thought about taking action himself. Only then did people approach him and ask how he would implement such a Velobahn. “That stimulated me as a trained engineer.” It was only in October that he got the idea for the elevated railroad. Csontos helped him with the European patent, which they filed in January 2020. Then Häring joined them. “What should we have done differently,” Kirchmayr asks, “about to stop thinking?”
Kirchmayr resigns as district administrator before Velobahn is built
The only criticism Aescher accepts is that he is placing his first order in Baselland. “We had talks with several cities, outside the cantons and internationally, and we still do. The market is huge. We would not have to depend on the offer from Basel, ”says Kirchmayr. But Esaf 2022 is ideal for a pilot project, which is why it was proposed to government councilors Thomas Weber and Isaac Reber. “It is understandable that they later have access to a national product.” The fact that he and Reber are friends was actually a disadvantage, says Kirchmayr: “As seasoned politicians, we are not naive and we are not surprised by the reactions.”
Kirchmayr also points out something else: “I am convinced that a district administrator should not do million-dollar business with the canton.” He will resign at the end of 2021 at the latest and will no longer experience the completion of the Velohochbahn as a parliamentarian. “Of course the guillotine of possession hits me, but I would do it differently.”
